Mary's First Recital

About a year and a half ago, my parents were at one of those "estate sales" where you anticipate that things will be overpriced or that there won't be anything that you would actually want. Anyway, they scored. They picked up a small upright piano for $50! It's certainly nothing fancy, but it is in good condition minus one decent-sized gash along the top of it. It's a little out of tune, but not that bad and we hope to tune it soon. It stayed in my parents garage until we moved back home to WA and when we moved up here to Whidbey Island, it moved with us.

For the last 6 months or so, Mary has been working on teaching herself the piano along with some astute tutoring from a local friend. She has been using the Jon Schmidt method and is specifically using the book "67 Fun Songs Arranged by Jon Schmidt". He is an amazing pianist and if you'd like to see some of his work go to youtube and search "Piano Guys" and there is some real cool videos that he does along with Celloist Steven Sharp Nelson. Mary's friend helps her with specific tips and corrections here and there. Mary has been doing great and tries to practice 10-15 minutes a day. I have been impressed with what she has started to put out and I have also enjoyed seeing how it inspires Sarah to practice a lot on her own... and she seems to have quite the knack for it. It's been great and a huge thanks to my parents for picking up the piano for such a steal and thinking of us!

Anyway, Mary had her first recital (Sarah played at it as well, impromptu) at her teachers house, who has several other students - adults and kids. Mary played Jon Schmidt's version of Silent Night and it sounded great... not perfect, but great! I was proud of her accomplishment and her pushing herself in this regard and seeing benefits. I enjoy hearing her progress a little over time and am impressed with how much she has grown in a relatively small amount of time.

Mary Hurt Her Foot :(

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Mary was carrying a couple of Marinelli's bottles out to the garage in a grocery bag so they could chill. One of the bags broke and it fell directly onto her big toe. She was not wearing shoes at the time and this was on the cement floor in the garage. Not a good combination. This has resulted in a lot of pain and discomfort and a limp that is still very present. She went and say a foot specialist in Everett (hooray for Dr. Nishimoto from Mays Pond Ward!) and both her tendon and her ligament separated from the bone on her big toe. Surprisingly, however, she did not break her toe! But the healing of these separations takes a while... a long while it seems. She saw Dr. Nishimoto again last week and there has been progress but not much. She has very little ability to move any of her toes on her left foot at all right now, though that is improving a little at a time. She is in a walking boot and the injury causes her a fair amount of soreness and discomfort and is still very sensitive to any kind of touch or contact. Poor woman!



Mary is a very active woman/wife/mom, etc and so it has been hard for her to be less so at times. However, during the recent snowstorm we had when I was home for a whole week (minus 5 hours of work) she had a legitimate excuse to stay inside bundled up and read books 6 and 7 of the Harry Potter series (for the first time) within a couple of days. She didn't mind being responsible for getting me and the kids hot cocoa twice a day and keeping the fire going while she got to sit inside and read, read, read. I have also taken over all grocery shopping since this has happened, which is fine and I try to follow her lists carefully :)

While things of this nature are certainly frustrating and inconvenient, they are a part of life. I'm glad this happened in December, when we spend much more time indoors anyway due to the weather, than in, say, May or June. Hopefully this will heal in time for us to enjoy the beautiful Spring/Summer/Fall that we can hardly wait for. You may notice that upcoming posts related to fun outdoors stuff exclude Mary... this is the reason for that. Get better soon!

Our Abbreviated Testimonies

For an assignment at church, Mary and I were asked to write our testimonies in roughly 250 words about serving in the church. This is what we wrote:

Mary wrote:
I haven't met any extremely trying or overwhelming trials in my life; rather I find everyday life to be my real trial. With each new responsibility, child, venture, etc. I become more acutely aware of the areas and ways in which I fall short of who I know I can be. I have found that my greatest struggle is an inner struggle with myself. Consequently, my testimony too has changed from an external understanding and belief in doctrine and principles of the Gospel to a witness of how Heavenly Father truly has a plan for me full of hope and possibilities, because He has provided me with a Savior. I know that whereas I can accomplish very little on my own; all things are possible in Christ. And that helps me to keep trying even when I have failed many times before.

I am very grateful for the opportunities that my husband and I have had to serve in leadership callings that are somewhat “demanding,” because they have been times of expedited growth. I find that the things we have had to learn to incorporate into our lives to sustain a strong, connected marriage and family are principles and practices that we should have already been drawing upon, but we hadn’t because we had never learned how to or we never saw the need for them before. We are learning the importance and the incredible blessings that come of living a purpose driven life.


Jeff wrote:
Ever since my mission I have loved opportunities to serve in the Church and my life and family have been blessed for, and in, that service. Sometimes church responsibilities result in longer days and busier weekends then I would have scheduled for myself. However, I have always appreciated that upon the close of those days or weekends that there is a consistently accompanied assurance that I was doing what the Lord would have me or my family do. Certainly, there is an awareness or reminder of what you could have been doing or what still needs to get done, but it seems that the stuff that needs to get done (yard work, home repairs… honey-do stuff) gets done and that our efforts in doing those more menial, yet necessary tasks, are consecrated by the Lord for putting His kingdom first. At times, I have left my wife and children to serve the Lord with some reluctance in my heart and some sadness on their faces. Yet, I have found that, the Lord compensates me and my family during those times of sacrifice in His behalf, if not immediately in the way we want, certainly in the way we need.

While I cannot enumerate all the blessings that have come from my service in my Father’s Kingdom and to His children, I know that I am happy, I love my life, I love my wife, I love our children, and I love my God.

Christmas '08

So, this is obviously long overdue, but if timeliness was a requirement I would've had to stop blogging long ago. Anyway, the kids didn't get up earlier than normal, which was nice... in fact I think they didn't get up until after 7 am (we'll enjoy this while it lasts). The tradition in my family growing up was to take a picture of the kids just before they got to run down the hall and open the presents. We have continued this tradition so here is our little trio together for Christmas for the first time. It was a beautiful morning, having snowed much of the night and it continued to snow for much of the day.

Nathan's Christmas was all about Thomas the Tank Engine stuff. He got this little interactive book (pic below) from his Nanu and Bumpa (Mary's parents) as well as Thomas PJ's, another book and a bunch of the trains that you'll see below. He also got a Disney Characters "I Spy" book that he really enjoys as well. He got a Dinoco (CARS) helicopter from Uncle Kris and some art supply stuff from his Aunt Jenny's family. The kid was in heaven! Thanks for all the wonderful gifts everyone.

Could this reaction be any more excited! Sarah got some first readers books from her Oma and Opa (my parents) and has really enjoyed them (if only she'd read them instead of trying to memorize the story and then just quoting it almost word for word after a couple of reads!). She got some My Little Ponies from her Uncle Kris, some play food stuff from Nanu and Bumpa, and some art supply stuff from Aunt Jenny's family. She also received a hat and glove set from her cousin Ruby. Thanks again for everything.

My Mom made this adorable skirt for Sarah and a matching one for Jane that they both should be able to wear in a few months. Adorable... Sarah is really excited and both of her matching outfits with Jane have come from her Oma and Opa and they look so cute together.

As mentioned above, Nathan got a bunch of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff. The pic above is of the stuff that he got from his Oma and Opa. Mary and I were so particularly excited for Nathan's Christmas because he's at the age where we know (sometimes) what he wants (and this year it was SO obvious) but he's not to the point where he's really asking for it. So we knew it would be (and it was) a totally, unexpected surprise of pure delight! It's so fun to be a parent at Christmas and seeing your kids get so excited over their presents. Anyway, so Nathan got this James and Rickety combo pictured above. As soon as he gets it he says "James" and takes them and runs into the toy room where his brio train tracks are (we've had a bunch of this for a while but we haven't really had any Thomas pieces to go with it) and starts playing. After a bit we go in and tell him that there are more presents to open. So he comes back in and opens the large set that we had gotten him with a bunch more Thomas characters and some more track. As soon as he opens this up he says "Huh! James!" and runs into the toy room to retrieve James where he had left it and bring them all together. The kid could not have been happier and it was so fun because, for the most part, he woke up that morning not expecting much of anything. So cute! Here he is below after his Dad totally loved using some of the new pieces to build a really cool train-track.
When we were younger (I don't even remember actually doing it) we all designed our own plates and then they were somehow laminated or something so we had them for a number of years. I know we did these at Christmas at some point because we always thought my Dad's plate was the coolest and it had some kind of a Santa on it, or something. Anyway, my parents got us this plate set for Sarah and Nathan and Jane to do some plates. Sarah was the only one that really did one on her own and it was pretty adorable as you can see above (it's a "kitty cat"). Nathan's was his hand traced, a little bird, and some clouds in the middle and then around the outside of the plate was some train track and then a bunch of the Thomas character's names as Nathan announced them. Jane's was cute too as it just had some stats about her being born and what she was currently doing (crawling, eating, nursing every three hours, getting bit by Nathan, talking, and some other stuff I can't remember). Anyway, we were really excited about these and the kids were excited to use them. However, unfortunately, it apparently wasn't a very good product as the dishwasher destroyed the finish on the plates the first time we ran them. We were really disappointed as we had carefully followed the directions :^( It was a really cute idea though!

The rest of our day was just spent with Mary and I playing some games and just enjoying relaxing. Last year we had these grand plans to cook this great dinner and then never got out of our jammies. So this year we changed course a bit and just did a whole bunch of appetizers. We made some really good stuffed mushrooms, had little smokies, cheese logs, wassail, and some other stuff. We just let the kids play all day and really enjoyed the day, though we terribly missed not being in W. WA with my family. However, we were grateful that we didn't plan on going because the weather certainly would've kept us at home. Anyway, we hope everyone had a wonderfully Merry Christmas! God Bless!

Mary's Birthday '08

Mary had another birthday this year (who didn't?) just before Christmas. She enjoyed the Ice-cream cake that I made her and some friends watched the kids while we went out to dinner in town. It was a quieter and more simple birthday for her, which was nice, I think. I know it didn't compare to last years' birthday for her of a day of solitude in the library. Happy Birthday Sweetie!

7th Anniversary!

Today is our 7th Anniversary. It's interesting how it seems that on one hand the time has just flown by. But on the other hand, that it seems like Mary's been in my life for so long... my life before Mary seems like it was sooooo long ago (and don't take that the wrong way). Here's a brief statistical summary of our seven years together:

-We've been married for 2,558 days and over 61,300 hours.

-We have three cute kids

-We've lived in 8 different locations and 5 different cities

-We've been in 9 different wards

-We've had four vehicles

-We've gone from having one nephew to four nieces and six nephews (w/ at least one more on the way - probably a boy!)

Alright, this is getting kind of boring and tedious to think about some of this somewhat unnecessary info.

Needless to say, we've had a great 7 years! We're planning on doing something fun in the Spring/Early Summer without the kids, but I'm taking the day off tomorrow to enjoy the day with just my wife (and Jane for most of the day).

We're fully aware of the 7 year itch and the stresses of kids on a marriage (we KNOW!), but we are still in love and enjoy spending time together. We pine for minutes, hours, and (gasp!) days where we can just get away and be together. We look forward to quiet moments in the evening after the kids are asleep where we get to just talk with each other about our days and just connect. We love doing our own things and then being together again. We enjoy being around each other in both large and small social settings. We love watching each other serve in the church as we develop some of our talents. I am frequently amazed at how she makes our income expand and go much farther than I could even hope it would. I'm amazed at how organized and driven she is when she sets her mind to something. Life is busy, crazy, fun, hectic, frustrating, enjoyable, silly, rewarding, tiring and everything in-between and more... and I'm so glad that I can spend this life, and particularly eternal life, with my Sweetheart. Happy Anniversary to Us!

A Cure for this Obnoxious (Posted by Mary) Stuff (Posted by Jeff, just to be clear)

I know it's been absolutely abnoxious to have Mary "hijacking" my blog while I was away [and even when I wasn't... the nerve] so I've solved the problem. I changed my password for my log-in so now she no longer has access to my blog. I'll just have to make sure that I sign-out when I'm on the blog and I'll have to log-in each time, which will be a little annoying but it obviously serves a purpose. Okay, so I didn't really shun her, I just finally added her as an "author". So this blog, appropriately, now has two authors... Mary and myself. So, she will no longer have those odd titles to her posts. Instead, if you're curious who authored the post you'll have to look at the bottom of each post to see if it was me, or her. Although, astute readers will quickly be able to identify the different idiosyncracies that we both have in our writing. Anyway, problem solved.
So, let's all welcome Mary, officially, into the blogging world by leaving a comment that mentions one quirk/oddity or something interesting that you know or have observed about Mary (even the lurkers can comment!). She will now be able to leave comments on your blog as well that are actually from her. And the nice thing is that any comment from her is also a comment from me since I taught her how to blog, just remember that ; * ) The pic above is the one that Mary chose for now for her profile picture, the one below is the one that I wanted her to put in there. I guess I'll let her choose such things now that she's an official blogger. Welcome to the HammFamilyFun Blog, Jeff and Mary edition!

80 Month Anniversary!

Mary and I have been married for 80 Months today! I try to remember this monthly and I remembered it today while I was typing up a case note at work. So I quickly did the calculations and remembered that it was 80 months today! So I called Mary and wished her "Happy 80 Month Anniversary". She usually just chuckles and thanks me for remembering. Sometimes she remembers before me and extends to me the congrats. It's a fun thing to remember.

Landscaping Piggy

One of our small landscaping projects last weekend was fixing an ugly area that had become weed-filled (the weeds here are terribly rampant, much more worse than in W. WA). It is a little area in the corner of our front yard next to our driveway that has the mailbox post in it. So Mary cleaned up the weeds and took out the old bark and had laid down some weed-barrier stuff and we wanted to put some rock in there. Jenny had picked some decorative rock up from a garage sale while she was here for free but there wasn't very much of it. I suggested that we take out some of the random landscapring rocks that we had in the backyard and combine them to go there and it worked great. Mary later had the idea to paint a little pig on one of the rocks so we did that on Sunday afternoon. The kids enjoyed "helping". Here are the results:

Sarah getting ready to help out Mary.

Nathan trying to get into the act with Sarah looking on and Mary doing the actual work.

Here's the finished product, it looks pretty cute... hopefully it doesn't wash-off with rain.

Trip to Sand Dunes II

While some more family was in town for the weekend for Jane's baby blessing we made a trip out to the Sand Dunes in Bruneau again last Saturday (sorry if this is very repetitive, but there's not that much to do out here and the dunes are really fun!). It was a little more fun this time since there were more kids than just Sarah and Nathan which allowed for more fun moments and Sarah and Nathan were a little more excited about it and confident on the hills then they were last time. The weather was great... not much sun and just a few brief sprinkles. Also, Mary came along with Jane this time which also made it fun to be out there as a family. Those that came up for the weekend and made the trip out to the Dunes with our family were my parents; my brother (Robb) and his two girls: Hailey and Emma; and Mary's cool bro Kristopher. Kris made the trek up to the top of the really high dunes behind the lake and we just enjoyed snacks and then enjoyed one of the kid-sized dunes. Here are a bunch of pics, not in any particular order:

Here is a good fun pic of our little family of five at the base of the dunes the kids enjoyed playing on.
Here is my brother, Robb, and his two girls, Hailey and Emma.
Here is a close-up of little Jane fast asleep against Daddy's chest... what a sweetie!
Kris giving Nathan a ride up the dunes, it's so great to have bachelor uncles!
Here is a pic of Jane and I up on the top of the dune... and yes, Jane is comfortable!

Sarah took a fall while playing near the lake and skinned her knee which was the cause of much anguish and need of assistance and pity. Fortunately, she recovered and had a blast with her cousins on the dunes... much more active and confident then she was last time, which was great for everyone!
My wonderful mother... it was so great to have her here and enjoy some more time with her! Thanks so much for coming Mom!
My hip Dad! It was great to have him with us as well and I'm so glad that he made the trip also! Thanks so much for coming Dad!
Nathan with Uncle Kris in the background
Emma on her Daddy's lap for a free trip to the top!

A cute close-up of Sarah with Emma in the background at the bottom
Me and Jane (How do you like the beard? I shaved it the next morning so this is as good and scraggly as it gets!)

Opa giving Nathan a lift
Nathan down by the lake... Nice pic Mary!

So, yeah, we had a baby girl this morning...

Yesterday Mary had a check-up and she had dialated to a 5 since her last appointment, which signaled to us that we were pretty ready to have this baby. Though with Nathan, Mary was dialated to a 6 for a few days before we broke her water and that put her into active labor. So I went and taught my last lecture for the class I'm teaching on Monday night and got home around 10 pm last night. We stayed up chatting and making sure we were on the same page for plans and all. We had planned on going in on Wed morning to have her water broken if nothing happened before then. We went to bed around 11:15 pm last night. At 3:29 AM this morning, Mary woke me up and said "Jeff, get up, we need to go". I called our pre-arranged friend and she came over to our house. I still am not sure what time we got to the hospital... it couldn't have been too much before 3:45 AM... and Jane Azreal Hamm was born at 4:02 AM... so yeah, it went pretty quick! They didn't even have time for her to do anything before she was on that bed and ready to go. As is the typical fashion, Mary performed better than I did and I think I was pretty close to fainting and had to stay seated... it all came pretty quick. Jane weighs 7 lbs 5 oz and measured at 20 inches in length. And, yeah, it is 6:15 AM and I'm home so that our friend didn't have to wake Sarah and Nathan up to take them home so her hubby can go to work. We'll let the kids get a little more sleep and then I'll do breakfast with them and take them back over to our friends. I left right after they did their first feeding and Jane seemed to have a pretty good appetite! She was sucking on her hands, thumbs, fingers right after she came out, it was pretty cute. She seems healthy and seems a little smaller than Nathan and Sarah was. Mary, of course, did an amazing job and seemed very in control and was able to be patient with the nurses when they were wanting to do the typical mandatory things when she knew there wasn't time for that. Anyway, I left the camera at the hospital, so I don't have any pics to post, but I thought I would let everyone know... and come on! My wife just had a baby like 2.5 hours ago... I'll try to get the pics posted in the next day or so.
Oh, and her name is Jane Abigail Hamm... I didn't give her a middle name after Gargamel's cat from the smurf's, don't worry!

Can I just say that Mary is amazing... like with everything! There were three main goals with regards to the timing of the baby, some obviously more important than others. First, we wanted this to happen after my last lecture class (which happened last night, I just need to administer a final next Monday), second- we thought it would be nice if it happened a day or two before my mom gets here (she comes on Thurs afternoon), and third- just for funsies, we thought it would be fun for us to have Jane on a birthday in the 20's. My birthday is on the 21st, Mary's on the 22nd, Nathan's on the 25th and Sarah's on the 26th, and now Jane's on the 29th... not that big of a deal obviously, but kind of cool. Oh yeah, and we wanted to make it to the hospital, and we did... barely! Nathan just woke up... he takes after his dad... up with the sun!

Baby Shower

So, one of our friends offered to throw Mary a shower a while ago. It was held last week, on 4/12, at the Angerbauer's house here in the area. It sounds like there was a good showing and that everybody had a good time. Mary was feeling very ill at the time, but I think that it was good to get out and be social for a bit. Of course, people were very generous with some cute and fun things that Jane will look very adorable in for sure. A lot of people went in on a group gift: a new baby swing/cradle, it's the "Starlight Papasan Cradle Swing". This was something that we really wanted as it plugs in (why do they make so many of these battery-operated?) and can swing side-to-side or front-to-back. It will be very nice to have and thanks to all who contributed to this gift and other personal gifts. Below are some pictures.

The fun thing about this shower is that Sarah went. She had so much fun and, I think, felt very special being able to go to an all-adult party for her sister with her Mom. She had lot's of stories to share and was very excited to show me all of the things that baby Jane got and how cute she would look in this and that, etc. She was a proud big Sis.
Big surprise... Sarah was designated the present-opener for the event.
Lindsey (and her husband, Mark) goes all out on everything and is an amazing hostess... she even had her party and invitations (home-made) coordinate with the colors of Jane's room! She is a great friend and Sarah and Nathan really enjoy playing with her. And we enjoy getting together and playing board-games with them. She made some amazing brunch dishes that I got to enjoy later for lunch. Thanks so much for hosting Lindsey! Mary had a great time and I heard your hosting abilities were even more amplified then we had known.

Garden Beginning...

As fairly new homeowners experiencing our first spring in the area and in our new home we're plenty ambitious... no it hasn't warn off yet... completely. So, we've decided to start a garden in our little backyard. Thankfully, unlike many new builds around here, our soil seems like it's pretty good and not too rocky. We still need to pull the grass section out but the other day we pulled out the weedy area and the soil looks pretty nice (like I would know!). The garden will be about 18 x 18 feet, a decent chunk of our back yard, but it'll be nice to have some fresh, cheaper, home-grown veggies. We're planning on planting cucumber, tomatoes, zuchini, squash, carrots (maybe) and I think Mary wants to do some strawberries. Once we remove the grass we're planning on renting a rototiller next week to churn up the soil before planting. We'll probably be planting about the time Jane is born, so we'll see how that goes. We're optimistic about the results but we'll see if the daily effort ends up being worth it. I'm sure the kids will be excited about watching it grow and will be anxious to help in the watering process! Below are some pics of our work. Oh and Sarah wanted me to mention that our neighbor's dog's name is Chico.

75 Month Anniversary!

Mary and I have been married for 75 months today! Pretty crazy and quite a landmark... even if it is only in months. I've now remembered our "silver" month (25) anniversaryand our "golden" month (50) anniversary. I try to make a point of remembering our "month" anniversary and after getting in the habit during the first couple of years, one of us usually remembers to say "Happy ____ month Anniversary" each month on the 16th, and I was looking forward to this one. It's kind of a fun thing to celebrate each month and serves as a reminder of our wedding, which is always something great to look back on and be reminded of. For those of you that are whizzes at math, we'll be married for 100 months in March of 2010. We're currently about 1/12th behind where the Hinckley's were at when Sister Hinckley passed away (67 years). Something to aspire to! (hint to Chris and Rebecca: your 75 month will be on March 8th, Robb and Heather: yours will be on November 30th, Taylor and Leah passed theirs last month).

Add Expert Upholsterer to her Loooong list of amazing abilities!

Mary decided to cover our dining chairs a while ago, which is a must because they are wicker-style chairs which DO NOT mesh well sanitarily with kids eating habits/styles. Just the other day Sarah (who we're trying to empower to do as much as she can on her own... with mixed results) spilled about a fourth a gallon of milk on the table, chairs and floor. Anyway, we had purchased this table and chairs set off of Craigslist this summer and Mary hoped to do something with the top of the chairs. She bought some deep brown vinyl a while ago and went to it this weekend. They look awesome, are more comfortable, match the color of the base of the table and the living room couches, and are easier to clean. These took a ridiculous amount of staples, but the results on the top look great! Nice work Mary! Here are some pics.